A general information quality based approach for satisfying sensor constraints in multirobot tasks

— Many architectures have been proposed to solve tightly-coupled multirobot tasks (MT) through coalitions of heterogeneous robots. However, several issues remain unaddressed. As coalitions are formed, sensor constraints among robots are also established. For example, in a leader-follower task, follower robots must keep leader robots within their sights, while in a box-pushing task, a supervisor robot needs to track the moving direction of the box and monitor the pushing path to the goal for obstacle avoidance. The question of how to keep these constraints satisfied during the entire execution, from initial configurations to completeness of the task, remains an open issue. In addition, environmental factors, both static and dynamic, can influence the maintenance of the constraints. Moreover, problems arise when the constraints are unsatisfiable given the current circumstances. For example, the sight of the leader might be blocked or there might be obstacles blocking the view of th...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2010
• Where: ICRA
• Authors: Yu Zhang, Lynne E. Parker
• Keywords: ICRA 2010, Robotics, Robots, Sensor Constraints, Tightly-coupled Multirobot Tasks